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If Ford really recognized the damage he has done to the city over the past three years, if he sincerely wanted to take responsibility and make amends, he would drop his bid for re-election and step aside while he focused on healing himself and his family.

Ford said many important things that cannot have been easy to acknowledge publicly. For the first time, he admitted that his substance abuse problem includes drugs, as well as alcohol. He apologized to the city, to voters, to his fellow city councillors whom he has insulted and abused. “I am ashamed, embarrassed, and humiliated,” he said.

He ought to be, and on a human level we wish him well in what he himself acknowledged will be a life-long struggle with the terrible disease of addiction. “This is a long, long road to recovery,” he said.

But all that still does not make Rob Ford a fit candidate to be mayor. If anything, realizing the depth of his problems and the extent of his misdeeds should make him more prepared to shoulder full responsibility. That would mean giving up his campaign for re-election and stepping away from public life while he continues the difficult fight with his illness.

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Instead, after 13 minutes of apparently sincere apologies and self-recrimination, Ford pivoted to a standard campaign speech – complete with fight-the-gravy-train references and recycled claims about saving money and bringing the city unions under control. It’s the same old line.

Worse, Ford and his handlers stage-managed his return to duck most of the most awkward questions about his associations with criminal figures and the ongoing police investigation into his activities. Instead, he simply stonewalled and walked away.

Recovery from addiction should not be a tactic in a re-election campaign. Acknowledging errors and taking responsibility does not mean the slate is wiped clean.

Actions have consequences, and in Ford’s case the unavoidable consequence is that his political career should be – for now at least – over. That’s the least he owes the people of Toronto after abusing their trust so badly and for so long.

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